The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) is a small but effective tool in the U.S. Government’s Foreign Assistance toolkit.
USADF is on the frontier of development, working directly with Africans on the ground to combat some of Africa’s most difficult development and foreign policy challenges with programs to increase the U.S. diplomatic and development presence in the hardest to reach areas of extreme poverty.

The Agency effectively works with the most vulnerable in communities – having successfully created development models for communities in fragile and post-conflict countries, ethnic and religious minorities, youth, the disabled, and nomadic populations.

USADF awards small grants (up to $250,000) for technical assistance and capacity building to grassroots organizations, cooperatives and community enterprises that strengthen local institutions and achieve lasting impact. The grants help organizations create tangible benefits such as increasing or sustaining the number of jobs in a community, improving income levels, and addressing social development needs.
What does ADF stand for?
 

USADF prides itself on its staff and partnership accountability. Each project is unique, and must be monitored closely for success. USADF in Washington, DC coordinates with each of the 19 Field Offices and technical partners to develop and monitor each project’s financial benchmarks and set internal audits for each project. USADF maintains a rigorous, evidenced-based framework for monitoring and evaluating program performance. Key indicators are identified for each grant, which are tracked to a performance matrix and form the basis for an ongoing learning agenda. Grant performance is scored bi-annually against established goals, helping to define program outcomes and to shape program management objectives.

At the core of USADF’s programming, is our direct connection to African solutions for the development challenges each community faces. Africans lead our country teams, and facilitate our African-led, grassroots model. In partnership, we direct our investments to each100% African enterprise with no middle man or administrative overhead. This direct relationship affords USADF in Washington, DC, our Field Offices the ability to see all of the financial statements and audit projects because we can release the funds as we see benchmarks being made by the Technical Partners that provides the training and the grant beneficiaries directly.

USADF is on the frontier - working with the most vulnerable: those impacted by conflict; the disabled, women and at-risk youth, and religious minorities. USADF caters each projects benchmarks to the group, its objectives and the work or progress grantees have contributed to make the project a success. Although the grants seem small in size compared to other development agencies, USADF prides itself on transferring the financial knowledge and project management skills necessary to properly use each dollar.